Introduction

It's been ten, long years since her abrupt departure, and, with a cryptic voicemail, 28-year-old writer Charlotte Sutton finds herself back in her hometown of Lakeside, Ohio. Only this time, her estranged father doesn't recognize her, and a surprise half-sibling has taken her place.

Chuck Sutton-newspaper editor, retired baseball player, and the town's most beloved celebrity-is thought to have Alzheimer's disease. The community newspaper is also on the verge of closure, and a childhood friend holds a decade-long grudge. Despite all this, there is Lakeside. The quaint waterfront community, flush with ivy-covered cottages and vintage charm, hasn't changed even as everything else in Charlotte's life has shifted. She intends to stay only long enough to get her father's affairs in order.

But, to reconcile her past and unearth family secrets, Charlotte must reconnect with Chuck through his Alzheimer's diagnosis and reevaluate her own misconceptions about growing up in the small Ohio town that still holds her heart.

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Excerpt

Charlotte Sutton glanced at the buzzing phone lying beside her on the window seat.

Area code 419. Lakeside, Ohio. Frowning, she set her laptop aside and silenced the call, placing her cell face-down.

It’s nothing. A telemarketer.

Or was it? In recent weeks, she’d received more than one dropped call from her Lake Erie hometown—an unlikely occurrence on any day of any week of any month. A boy—a teenager—had left a message the night before. He’d stumbled through a request to discuss Chuck and hung up without giving his name.

Charlotte hadn’t returned the call. If some star-struck, wannabe athlete required her esteemed father’s advice, autograph, or approval, he was looking in the wrong dugout. He’d need to do a search of “Chuck Sutton,” “retired baseball player,” “author,” “shitty dad,” or some-such combination. She wasn’t Chuck’s publicist.

Shoving the ungracious thought back into her closet full of demons, Charlotte turned her attention to the old brownstone apartments across the street. A glint of rare November sunshine reflected off the metal fire escape snaking from a rooftop martini bar to the Pittsburgh sidewalk below, where people in business attire scurried like an army of ants. In equal numbers, tourists and locals meandered from shop window to shop window. A homeless man squatted on a cardboard square on the stoop of an abandoned storefront. To her left, Charlotte glimpsed a small section of the Roberto Clemente Bridge, its straw-colored arch an icon of the city of black and gold. She could even see a corner of the baseball stadium.

Ironic, really. She hated baseball—something her father would never understand.

Charlotte had lived in the condo alone since her mother remarried and moved on. The place’s views were its biggest selling point, but the novelty had dimmed in the past year. It was like watching a cityscape video on a loop—an endless, streaming melting pot of faceless strangers, all different but all the same.

She drained the remains of her coffee, hurried across the room, and plunked the mug into the sink. The sailboat etched onto its side served as a niggling reminder of the call from the lake.

It’s nothing. Absolutely nothing. Charlotte returned to the window and glanced at the bricks of the baseball stadium.

“Dammit.” It’s probably something. She snapped up her cell and retrieved the message.

“Hello,” the caller said. “My name is Jake Forrester. I’m trying to get in touch with Charlie Sutton.”

Charlie. The use of the familiar, masculine moniker sent a twitch up Charlotte’s spine.

“We haven’t met,” Jake said. “I’m a friend of your father’s. I understand you’re quite busy, Charlie—”

“Aah, hell no.” Charlotte dropped the message and threw the phone onto the cushions. This Jake person, who had no right whatsoever to use the wretched, awful nickname, sounded... crisp and business-like. Definitely not a teenager. He was a reporter. Had to be. She’d endured countless interviews when she was still under her father’s roof. Chuck had always introduced her as his daughter “Charlie,” as if Charlotte was a derivative of Charles. God, she hated the name. And nicknames, in general. They’d been as common as trailer parks and fishing poles when she was growing up. Scooter and Babs and Bubbles and Pop-Tart. Everybody had a nickname. Charlotte had been saddled with more than one.

It doesn’t matter. Not anymore.

Charlotte tucked a short wisp of dark hair behind her ear. Dismissing her past, she returned to her laptop and carefully scanned the final draft of her essay about growing up an only child. Finding no errors, she pressed “send” to her editor. A faint smile edged her lips with the click of the button, and her gaze shifted to the opposite wall. The framed two-page spread of her first published magazine article hung there. Her miniature headshot stared back at her.

Charlotte’s smile faded. Even from a distance, she recognized the acute resemblance to her father.

“This is bullshit.” She grabbed her keys and the spare to the apartment down the hall, pulled the door shut behind her, and hurried to #517. Expecting no one home, she gave a light tap and shoved the key in the hole. A muffled woof greeted her from the other side. Charlotte entered, and a large blur of light fur bounded toward her.

“Good boy, Alfredo. How’s my buddy?” She bent down to the Labrador retriever circling her legs. “You’re just what I need right now. Elliot still at work, huh? Wanna go for a walk?”

She pulled a leash from a wall hook, ignoring the flicker of guilt that pushed her toward the door. There would be an awkward conversation. No avoiding it. Her ex would see this as a sign—a grand sign of reconciliation and invitation.

It was not a sign, and there would be nothing grand about it. view abbreviated excerpt only...

Discussion Questions

From the author:

1. Charlotte left her small-town home right after graduation, with the intent of stepping out of her father’s larger-than-life shadow. How did her independence help her grow? How did it not quite meet her social and/or career expectations?

2. Charlotte did not allow herself to get emotionally close to anyone after leaving Lakeside, including Elliot, her on-again, off-again boyfriend. Why do you think this is?

3. Charlotte said she returned to Lakeside simply to do her duty as Chuck’s daughter. What do you think Charlotte really wanted to accomplish by returning? Discuss.

4. When Charlotte first came in contact with her half-brother, she was visibly upset. We saw little of Adam’s reaction. What do you think he was feeling in that moment?

5. Why was “big city” Charlotte reluctant to see the good in “small town” Lakeside, Ohio? What are some misperceptions she had about her small-town upbringing?

6. Children do not come with directions. What are some different choices Chuck might/should have made while raising Charlotte? What are some unreasonable expectations or perceptions Charlotte had of her parents, either individually or as a married couple?
7. Alzheimer’s disease greatly impacts patients and caregivers. Discuss. In Finding Sutton’s Choice, how does the diagnosis change Charlotte’s relationship with Chuck?

8. What are some aspects of the after-story that surprised you most?

9. What do you see in the unwritten future for Charlotte? For Adam? For other characters?

10. Discuss how the characters of Lakeside made you feel. Who were you rooting for? Who did you feel most connected to? Who did you recognize in yourself?

Weblinks

»	Publisher's book info
»	Kirkus Review
»	Literary Titan book review

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